The UPSC civil services prelims exam went on as scheduled and candidates who saw their names in the prelims rank list must be now eagerly awaiting the UPSC mains due to commence in about 40 days. There are two papers in the prelims exam namely, the General Studies paper I and the CSAT. The CSAT is a qualifying paper with a minimum of 33% marks to be scored by candidates. The marks secured in the GS I will be counted for the ranking. Every year the UPSC prescribes a certain minimum marks called the cut-off. Candidates who score this cut-off mark or above in the GS I (subject to scoring the minimum 33% or above required in CSAT) are eligible for appearing for the IAS mains exam. Read on for more about the expected cutoff of UPSC prelims 2017.

The UPSC reveals this cut-off mark only after the entire process of the civil services exam is over including the declaration of the final result. It is expected that candidates who had cleared the IAS prelims 2017 would have scored 105 – 110 or more marks. That is, the cut-off would be between 105 and 110.

Expected UPSC Prelims 2017 cut-off: 105 – 110 +

This cut-off is for the general category candidates. It will be lower for the other categories.

These marks are based on an analysis of the question paper and the feedback from our students. Last year the cut-off mark was higher, at 116. This year, the paper was tougher and also more conceptual when compared to the previous year prelims. More questions were asked from polity and the candidates who had a good conceptual understanding would have fared better.

The cut-off is basically the mark of the last candidate in the merit list that the UPSC prepares. The UPSC prepares the merit list in the descending order of marks obtained by the candidates. For example, suppose there are 250 vacancies in a particular category. Then, the cut-off mark is the mark obtained by the 250th candidate in that list.

The Commission generally calls for the UPSC mains 12 – 13 times the number of total vacancies in the services for a given year.

The next table gives you the cut-off (general category) mark for the years 2005 to 2016 for the IAS prelims exam: